Dual Purpose Sofa Pulls Out To Become A Rug [Pics]

Origami by its very nature creates something from nothing, and has already found plenty of applications within urban design. Austrian-born designer Yumi Yoshida decided it was time to apply the Japanese paper-folding techniques to furniture design, and has managed to put traditional pull-out sofas to shame.
Constructed from a series of upholstery panels placed between two layers of fabric, each of them can be manipulated to take the shape of different parts of a sofa. In the same way that traditional origami paper uses two colors, Yoshida’s project features vibrant orange for one side, and a more subdued grey for the other.
“The two different colours resemble the sides on a sheet of origami paper and emphasize the change in both function and form as it folds from a flat rug into a couch,” explained Yoshida.
As with most origami, the design is intelligent, but difficult to put into words. For that reason, we’ve included some pictures that show the sofa’s transformation from a single piece of material to a fully-functional piece of furniture.